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Hi, long time reader of this forum, but first post.
I purchased a 2 storey townhouse in Liverpool NSW in November last year as an investment. It was bull in 1985.
It turns out that one landlord owns 7 out of 14 lots, and believes the OC should be paying for all his renovations.
A EGM was called to discuss the upwards of 20k work he wants approved to his townhouse. The upstairs bathroom (including shower) are leaking badly downstairs and have destroyed the lower ceiling. Our Insurance is “only” covering some of it.
My questions are as follows:
We have proof that the tenants reported this to their realestate agent, (therefore the owners?) over 2 years ago, which has caused the damage to become far greater. Does this limit liability of the OC, due to it not being reported to the Strata until very recently? Why should our insurance even pay for this?
They have asked for and provided quotes for a full bathroom renovation including new vanity, all new tiles (wall and floor), toilet and shower screen. Surely these items can be reused? Is this reasonable?
As he owns 7 out of 14 lots, will his vote alone pass the motion?
Is the OC really responsible for all tiles? Note that all tiles on the walls are though to external walls. Tiles off the floor have broken away.
The shower was repaired in 2009, as we have reason to believe the owner knew it was leaking again in 2012, should this not of been covered by insurance of the repairer at the time?
The quote includes water proofing the whole bathroom floor, it appears the whole floor was never done since brand new, this has only become in issue as the tiles have broken up on top.
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Had similar experience in past strata premises. We had clause in our by laws stating that waterproofing of bathrooms/showers was owners responsibility in the townhouse complex.
We received a letter from an owner stating that the upstairs shower recess, which had been previously had a repair to a leak under the builders warranty, had again cracked 12 months after this repair. So when owner wrote to OC 4 years after crack reappeared, he stated that the floor of shower had “collapsed” and water had poured through the ceiling into level below, affecting wiring and plasterboard etc.
We directed owner to above mentioned by law re waterproofing. We also pointed out to owner that had the reappearance of this crack been addressed earlier, it would have been covered by builder as within 12 months. We did not carry out work on this shower recess.
There was a common belief in that complex that all was covered by strata so it didn’t matter how bad a situation or problem became because someone else would be paying for it anyway! So why report it?
If a shower recess is covered by the OC and the complex’s bylaws, generally it is done on a like for like basis. That is, if the floor tiles are mission brown 100mm x 100mm, then that is what is replaced, or close enough to it. And an owner is usually liable for tiles along the internal walls, the OC the tiles along the common walls. So not all OC. Not all the bathroom. And if the owner wants a nice clean brand new subway tiles, wall hanging toilet and new shower screen – that would be very nice. But that’s a renovation, not a repair!
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